Search Me - Psalm 139

As we continue our series through Psalm 139, we now move to the last part of David’s song. We saw the psalmist exalted God for His loving omniscience and omnipresence. He knows God knows his thoughts, his words – even before he thinks them or speaks them. David knows his loving Father knows where he lives and walks and sleeps and sits at every moment of every hour of every day. Indeed, David understands – long before anyone would understand about fetal development – David knew that it was his tender, loving Father-God Himself who formed him in his mother’s womb – bone to bone, flesh to flesh, blood vessel to blood vessel.

Is it any wonder David then continued: “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.” Certainly, this is hyperbole, but hyperbole to make a point – a point which ought to make every Christian ponder more often than most of us do. As James tells us: “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” (James 1:17) So, what kind of thoughts did he have that were more in number than the sands of the seas? Well, while we cannot know for certain, we can speculate. We can speculate because who God was to David, God is to us.

How often in my 52 years of walking with the Savior have I thanked Him, as David must have thanked Him, for His moment-by-moment protection and presence? How often? Not as often as I should have. And how often have YOU thanked Him? If you’re like me, not as often as you should have. Why? Because it’s human nature to take things for granted – until we lose them.

What things? Gifts from God of safety, health, food, clothing, family . . .. When was the last time we thanked God for hot and cold running water? Think for a moment how many hundreds of millions – maybe billions – of people on this planet do not have that luxury. And what about air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter? What about indoor toilets? And electricity to run our refrigerators and lights? Why do so many of us wait until we lose those comforts because of a storm or flood – why do so many of us wait until we LOSE things before we realize we should have been thanking Him all along?

And may God help us to NEVER overlook or take for granted our salvation. How often do we thank Him for Jesus, for opening our eyes and our hearts to his call? Remember, Jesus said to His disciples: “For the heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes . . . . But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” (Matthew 13:15-17)

Are you DAILY thankful to God that He opened your eyes, that He opened your ears and your heart to Him? How many people do you know – even here at Ashwood – who want nothing to do with Jesus? It astonishes me that they have one foot in the proverbial grave and the other on the banana peel – and yet they are so nonchalant about their impending eternal destiny.

Have you ever asked the Lord, “Why me? What have I ever done to deserve even one of the blessings that I’ve known?” We could thank God every day all day that he saved us. Every time we listen to the news or watch it on television – when we see the evil, the destruction, the sadness, the grief – O, how we should thank God every time we see it because He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son, and whom we have redemption the forgiveness of our sins. (See Colossians 1:13-14)

Every good thing we have – everything is a GIFT from our merciful and compassionate God and Father. No wonder Paul wrote to the Christians at Thessalonica: (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) “Rejoice always; Pray without ceasing; In everything give thanks; For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Now, back to the psalm. After reveling in God’s profound love for him, David makes what seems to be a startling turn: “O that You would slay the wicked, O God; Depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed. For they speak against You wickedly, and Your enemies take Your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred; They have become my enemies."

However, this really is not a turn. His words follow quite logically the theme of the entire psalm. David loved God, He loved Him – as some people today say to one another – David loved Him ‘to the moon and back.’  No wonder he took great offense when wickedness pranced about unhindered, corrupting and destroying the good that God had done and was doing. Think for a moment: Doesn’t it ANGER you when you hear of children – CHILDREN – being trafficked into sexual slavery? Doesn’t it make your blood boil when murderers and rapists do what they do – even repeatedly – and the justice system turns a blind eye and sends them back into their neighborhoods? Doesn’t it grieve you to know some 2,000 babies are slaughtered each day in American abortion clinics? Two thousand each day.

David knew of such wickedness. The nations surrounding Israel practiced hideous sins of child sacrifice, sexual immorality and perversion, murder, rape – just as is practiced today. A cursory reading of the books of Judges and Kings will demonstrate that truth.

And so, of course, such evil incensed him. Just as it ought also to incense the Christian – you and me. Listen to the Scriptures: (Psalm 97:10a) “Hate evil, you who love the Lord.” (Romans 12:9b) “Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.” (Psalm 119:158) “I behold the treacherous and loathe them, because they do not keep Your word. (Ephesians 5:11) “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them.”

Abhorring evil, hating evil, exposing evil also includes what we do in the ballot box at every election. Be wise in how you vote, and remember: (Psalm 111:10) “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who keep His commandments.”

Let’s now move to the final verses of this psalm, and I want to draw attention to something I’d never noticed until I was preparing this message. David turns from his imprecation, from his condemnation of the godless wicked, and says this of himself: Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.” (Psalm 139:17-24)

We don’t know if David wrote this psalm before or after the Bathsheba and Uriah debacle, but I think his appeal to God in these last verses indicate that David knew all too well his own sin nature, his susceptibility to temptation and sin. I also think David knew that ‘but for the grace of God,’ he could become like those whom he cursed.

And don’t think for a moment that there’s not a potential Judas in all of us. We can curse the darkness all day – but we should each fear, lest we become the darkness we curse. As Scripture warns, (1 Corinthians 10:12) “Let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.” That’s why the wise man and woman humbly approaches God and often asks “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.”

Why did David ask the Lord to search him? I can’t be dogmatic about the reason, but I will tell you what I strongly suspect. It was because he trusted God to be merciful to the penitent sinner. He trusted God to forgive the penitent sinner. David knew God is compassionate and abounding in love for the penitent sinner.

David concludes his psalm with an appeal to God to search Him, to examine him, to PROBE him. And THAT, my brothers and sisters is integrity at work. David wanted to know the truth about himself. He wanted to know God’s view of His heart. It seems David knew something about himself that the prophet Jeremiah would express several hundred years later: “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it? “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.” Jeremiah 17:9-10) And every honest Christian knows all too well how easily we can hide from ourselves the depths and the length and the breadth and height of our sins.

 Do you want God to search your heart and reveal to you your sins? One of the surest ways God speaks to us about our hearts is through His word. Here is what the writer to the Hebrew says: “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart. And no creature is hidden from God, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.   (Hebrews 4:12, NET)

 But – and this is important – God not only KNOWS the depths of our sins, but He LOVES us despite those sins. And He really, really does want to cleanse every one of those sins, cleanse them under the blood of His Son, Jesus – whose sacrificial death alone wipes from the book of our lives every stain of every sin of every penitent sinner who comes to Christ for cleansing and forgiveness.

 Do you know God in that way? Merciful? Compassionate? Loving? Oh, I so much hope you do, because if you do you will not shrink from asking the Lord, “Show me my worst, Lord. Show me my worst that I may repent and receive your incomprehensible forgiveness.”

 I can't tell you how many Christians I have spoken with who carry a heavy and unnecessary burden on their shoulders, thinking God would never really forgive them of their sins without first getting from them His pound of flesh. And why the bloody death of His Son does not convince them of the Father’s willingness to completely erase their sins – I do not understand. I am reminded of what CS Lewis said to this issue of God’s forgiveness: “If God forgives us, we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise, it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.”

 And so, we truly ought to feel comfortable to pray with the psalmist: “Search me, O God.” David then concludes his prayer this way: “See if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.” (verse 24)

 Many people, even Christians, don’t realize, we hurt God’s feelings when we sin. And yes, God – who created us in His image – God has emotions.

Listen to what He says to His beloved nation Israel through the prophet Ezekiel, “Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols.” (Ezekiel 6:9a)

Listen now to Paul’s words to the Christians at Ephesus: “Do not grieve (Greek – sadden, make sorrowful) the Holy Spirit of God. (Ephesians 4:30a)  And can you not sense the pathos in the Lord’s voice when He says of His beloved people, (Deuteronomy 5:29)  “Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always . . .” Or in Psalm 81:13 “Oh that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!”

 No, we should not be surprised that the Father weeps – that He weeps, as Jesus wept over Jerusalem – the Father weeps over our sins, our destructive and our self-destructive acts and attitudes. He weeps when we hurt others. He weeps when we walk away from Him, when we ignore Him.

The true Christian wants to avoid hurting God’s feelings just as much as David wanted to avoid it. We don’t want to grieve the Holy Spirit any more than St. Paul wanted to grieve Him. That is why this simple prayer of David can bring us so much spiritual healing: Lord, see if there be any hurtful way in me. And lead me in the everlasting way.

Listen! I will risk being redundant, but it is so important that I be so: God loves you. Deeply, intimately, passionately. He wants to forgive you, and hold you close to Himself. He only waits for you to come to Him in humility.

Will you come to Him? Will you come often? See Him in your mind's eye, His arms outstretched -- because they are.